In hostage situations and in pursuit of suspects, the suspects will often hide or take refuge in a building or other structure as protection from their pursuers. While specialized negotiators will often be called in to communicate with the suspects and get them to peaceably surrender, often law enforcement, typically a SWAT team will have to storm the building to apprehend the suspect(s) and, as applicable, free any hostages.
Obviously, law enforcement personnel making an entrance into a building that is occupied by an armed suspect wants to do so as quickly and efficiently as possible, hopefully when the suspects are distracted or otherwise occupied. Accordingly, it behooves law enforcement to make as quick an entrance as is reasonably possible without needlessly endangering the lives of any hostages and the suspect(s).
Explosive distraction rounds are known as devices that are thrown into a building typically through a window that explode with a load ear-piercing bang and a bright flash of light. As the name implies, the purpose of these rounds is to momentarily distract the suspect(s) and other persons in a building so that nearly simultaneously law enforcement personnel can enter the building and hopefully, incapacitate the suspect(s). Using the practice that is current in the art, the distraction round is thrown into a room where the suspects are believed to be located after an entrance means is identified or secured. For instance, a distraction round grenade may be launched through a window and timed via its fuse to detonate a short period of time thereafter.
Alternatively, it is known to deliver distraction rounds grenades or chemical agent grenades into buildings using extension poles. Typically, such poles are usually handmade and often improvised for a particular need and situation. The grenade may be taped or otherwise secured to the pole's end and is detonated by the pulling the release pin on the grenade using a string or cable and waiting the typical three second delay. Needless to say, improvised hand-made pole delivery devices are not very reliable and often don't provide the precision timing that could be critical in defusing a hostage situation. In all of these scenarios, there is a time delay from the moment that the device is activated or triggered then thrown by the operator or activated to explode by the operator who has attached it to a pole and the time the device actually explodes (usually, but not necessarily 3 seconds.) Not only does this delay cause a delay in the explosion and subsequent rescue, it is also a time when the device cannot be turned “off” or de-activated. The delay caused by the activation of the fuse prevents the operator's ability to change his mind, thus resulting in a possibly needless injury to people who may wander into close proximity of the device during the 3 second delay when the explosion, at this point, cannot be aborted.
At least one extension pole system, referred to as the BangPole, is available through LPS Tactical & Personal Security Supply of Newark, Calif. as described at www.lpstactical.com/bangpole.htm. The pole device comprises a telescoping locking pole, a clamp for accepting a diversionary device from one of a list of suppliers, an internal lanyard, a window rake, a screw in extension piece, handgrips and a belt mounted support unit. Mirror and camera mounts are also available for use with the BangPole. The BangPole, however, offers only minor advantages over the make-shift improvised pole described above and suffers from many of the same deficiencies as an improvised pole. For instance, the BangPole is substantially constructed of relatively light gauge materials and does not provide any means for angling the pole at a location along its length to provide greater leverage when using the window rake function as well as causing a more visible exposure of the user to an armed suspect located on the other side of the window. The BangPole is also a light duty device that is not constructed in a manner that would permit it to be used to impart a significant impact force on a window, such as to easily break through the window's glass although the website literature indicates a steel mini-ram is available to “port and rake barred windows”. Its primary functions are limited to surveillance such as when a camera or mirror is attached thereto, and delivering distraction grenades into a building by way of an open window or perhaps a thinly paned window. The device fails to offer the ability to simultaneously carry out surveillance and deliver a distraction round, let alone break and rake a window and then deliver a distraction round immediately thereafter without changing pole heads.
One other major deficiency of the bang pole is that, like improvised poles, it relies on a cable or lanyard system for the detonation of a flash or chemical grenade subjecting it to the same timing delays and inefficiencies as the homemade poles. It is further appreciated that the lanyard system of detonating a grenade is subject to malfunction and does on occasion fail to work. For instance, if the grenade canister becomes canted in its holder relative to the lanyard and cable, the user may not be able to pull the pin from the grenade. In critical hostage situations, a miscue as a result of a failed flash or chemical grenade detonation can have deadly consequences for hostages and law enforcement personnel.
When storming a building, such as in a hostage situation, the police and/or SWAT personnel must often gain entrance through a locked door. Traditionally, one of several methods is used. An officer may slam his shoulder against the door hoping to break it open. This is often not effective, especially in the case of reinforced and/or solid wood doors, and may cause injury to the officer. Alternatively, a battering ram may be utilized. However, this requires the officer(s) operating the ram to stand substantially in front of the door wherein they might be vulnerable to an armed suspect either shooting through the door or shooting the officers once the door is breached and they are revealed to the suspect. It is not uncommon for the ram to be slammed against the door multiple times during the attempt to force open the door. Very often, the door does not open on the first strike of the ram. During this time of multiple strikes, the suspects inside the objective are being alerted every time the ram hits the door while the officer that is striking the door with the ram is standing substantially in front of the door. Even when an officer goes to simply “knock” on the front door of a residence during a minor investigation, he or she is thought to never stand in front of the door. It is through the door that the suspect usually discharges his weapon if attempting to shoot the officer in this scenario. With the currently used ramming techniques (using a hard, heavy metal ram to strike the front door in a nearly linear motion), the officer must stand in from of the door in order to hold, guide and propel the ram effectively in high risk entries. If the door does not open with the first attempt, the suspects have been alerted, the hostages are at risk, and the officers assigned to enter the location are at risk.
Explosive devices are known that fire shot or other particulate through the door to disable the locking mechanism and allow entrance. They also generally require a user to stand in front of the door, but perhaps more significantly, the risk that particulate will penetrate through the door or ricochet back at an officer and injure a hostage or the officer is often too high to justify their use.
Given the current state of technology concerning breaching and securing a building occupied by one or more suspects potentially in a hostage situation is extremely risky for police and Swat teams. Furthermore, the timing in such an operation is critical. The failure to adequately coordinate the detonation of a distraction round with the forced breach of a door can have disastrous consequences including the loss of police and civilian lives.